April 22, 2008
Tuesday
El Milagro: I’m here at 4:15, having left my office at 4 today. Upon hitting the parking lot I realize my blue bag is at home so I don’t have my candy, radio, or headphones. I do have my blanket and pillow. I call Liz on her phone and ask her to bring the bag if she has time later. I find my chair and Alma the Nurse is trying to set me up and poke me while Rowder is doing his Tuesday Drive By. He looks at my lab work and says all looks fine except for the phosphorous, which he notes has gone up steadily for the past three labs: 5.6; 6.6; 7.5. “What’s the deal?” I report on my email to Jennifer the Dietician about chocolate, tortilla chips, and avocado and also tell him about my nightly nauseousness. He has no suggestions or recommendations about it, replying “we’ll see if it changes…”.
Jennifer the Dietician walks up and reports on my labs officially and wants to give me a copy of the report that cannot be read because the copier is kaput. I decline to have papers I cannot read. Alma is poking me as we talk. She says, in a nutshell: blood count – great; parathyroid – good; potassium – good; calcium – great; phosphorous – the pits. How many chips am I eating, “a grab bag?” she wonders. “No silly. A ton of chips with salsa. I have no control. 7.5 won’t give me a heart attack or kill me this week, will it?” She warns that it won’t kill me and it is still very important to get those numbers back down and I should be able to control my eating, as I have done in the past.
Sherry the Social Worker comes up to report on her work to secure my Kerrville Dialysis for the folk festival at the end of May. She says I’ll have to have another TB test. I remind her that my perfect time is noon til four if she can make that work. Also, that I have already contacted the head nurse down there to let ‘em know I’m coming. Sherry also mentions my being on the list for “nocturnal” dialysis at the south site. I wrinkle my brows and wonder about that… I think I said I am interested in hearing more about it, not that I want to jump in with both feet. She nods her head in understanding and begins to give me more information: it’ll be from about 8 until 3 in the morning; MWF; 6 hours dialysis is better for the body, etc. and my brain is integrating this with all the other things I have to fit in (work, not cuddling with my sweetie, travel, UT, etc.) and reply that I’ll think about it. She says it won’t even begin until the summer sometime. Sherry goes off to write down my “perfect” time and I settle in to writing this Earth Day Post.
Her conversation reminds me that I have to ask Ron our Head Nurse for a switcheroo on times for this weekend so I can attend Ken’s wedding. Ron finally has some time and I call him over and after some consideration, we decide I’ll come in Friday afternoon for my Saturday dialysis. Those 3rd session times are always easier to fit into than the 1st shift times. I thank him profusely and comment on his new haircut.
So, Earth Day. I remember taking Johnny and Katie to Earth Day celebrations in the park when they were little kids. There were lots of booths with information abo
ut living GREEN, face painting which Katie always likes, running wild which Johnny liked, Jazz or Folk music, and lots of bumper stickers. Here in 2008, according to the news-media, it is all about living green. A couple of things we can each do to participate in a greener home are:
1. Switch out light bulbs for those curly energy saving bulbs and turn them off during the daytime
2. Turn off computer when not using it
3. Keep thermostat at 68-75 degrees
4. Recycle aluminum, waste paper, and plastics
5. Use re-usable grocery bags
6. Buy used stuff instead of new stuff
7. Sign up for donating all organs
I doze for awhile, dreaming of greening up the world and what it’ll be like when it is done… and then wake up to watch the ABC News and doze some more and then wake up to watch the last few minutes of McNeil Lehrer and then NOVA comes on and it’s Tom and Ray Magliozzi… the Car Talk guys doing a show on the future of CARS.
I love car
s… always have since I was a five year old cutting the roofs off cars my mom had cut out of magazines for me to play with. “Do they ALL have to be convertibles?” she used to inquire. Little Hubley, Tootsie toy, and Matchbox
cars in grade school, AMT Model Cars in Junior High School, real cars in high school, and hot rods ever after.
Ahhhhhhhh. I am in hog heaven watching this show. Sayonara!
Notes: In at 78.1 and out at 74.3 Kgs.
The rest of the story on Post # 236!
New Picture of the '84 Coleman Columbia on Post # 235!
* Earth day online à http://earthday.envirolink.org/
** Car of the Future, retrieved online April 22 from NOVA’s website, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.
Tuesday
El Milagro: I’m here at 4:15, having left my office at 4 today. Upon hitting the parking lot I realize my blue bag is at home so I don’t have my candy, radio, or headphones. I do have my blanket and pillow. I call Liz on her phone and ask her to bring the bag if she has time later. I find my chair and Alma the Nurse is trying to set me up and poke me while Rowder is doing his Tuesday Drive By. He looks at my lab work and says all looks fine except for the phosphorous, which he notes has gone up steadily for the past three labs: 5.6; 6.6; 7.5. “What’s the deal?” I report on my email to Jennifer the Dietician about chocolate, tortilla chips, and avocado and also tell him about my nightly nauseousness. He has no suggestions or recommendations about it, replying “we’ll see if it changes…”.
Jennifer the Dietician walks up and reports on my labs officially and wants to give me a copy of the report that cannot be read because the copier is kaput. I decline to have papers I cannot read. Alma is poking me as we talk. She says, in a nutshell: blood count – great; parathyroid – good; potassium – good; calcium – great; phosphorous – the pits. How many chips am I eating, “a grab bag?” she wonders. “No silly. A ton of chips with salsa. I have no control. 7.5 won’t give me a heart attack or kill me this week, will it?” She warns that it won’t kill me and it is still very important to get those numbers back down and I should be able to control my eating, as I have done in the past.
Sherry the Social Worker comes up to report on her work to secure my Kerrville Dialysis for the folk festival at the end of May. She says I’ll have to have another TB test. I remind her that my perfect time is noon til four if she can make that work. Also, that I have already contacted the head nurse down there to let ‘em know I’m coming. Sherry also mentions my being on the list for “nocturnal” dialysis at the south site. I wrinkle my brows and wonder about that… I think I said I am interested in hearing more about it, not that I want to jump in with both feet. She nods her head in understanding and begins to give me more information: it’ll be from about 8 until 3 in the morning; MWF; 6 hours dialysis is better for the body, etc. and my brain is integrating this with all the other things I have to fit in (work, not cuddling with my sweetie, travel, UT, etc.) and reply that I’ll think about it. She says it won’t even begin until the summer sometime. Sherry goes off to write down my “perfect” time and I settle in to writing this Earth Day Post.
Her conversation reminds me that I have to ask Ron our Head Nurse for a switcheroo on times for this weekend so I can attend Ken’s wedding. Ron finally has some time and I call him over and after some consideration, we decide I’ll come in Friday afternoon for my Saturday dialysis. Those 3rd session times are always easier to fit into than the 1st shift times. I thank him profusely and comment on his new haircut.
So, Earth Day. I remember taking Johnny and Katie to Earth Day celebrations in the park when they were little kids. There were lots of booths with information abo
ut living GREEN, face painting which Katie always likes, running wild which Johnny liked, Jazz or Folk music, and lots of bumper stickers. Here in 2008, according to the news-media, it is all about living green. A couple of things we can each do to participate in a greener home are:1. Switch out light bulbs for those curly energy saving bulbs and turn them off during the daytime
2. Turn off computer when not using it
3. Keep thermostat at 68-75 degrees
4. Recycle aluminum, waste paper, and plastics
5. Use re-usable grocery bags
6. Buy used stuff instead of new stuff
7. Sign up for donating all organs
I doze for awhile, dreaming of greening up the world and what it’ll be like when it is done… and then wake up to watch the ABC News and doze some more and then wake up to watch the last few minutes of McNeil Lehrer and then NOVA comes on and it’s Tom and Ray Magliozzi… the Car Talk guys doing a show on the future of CARS.
I love car
s… always have since I was a five year old cutting the roofs off cars my mom had cut out of magazines for me to play with. “Do they ALL have to be convertibles?” she used to inquire. Little Hubley, Tootsie toy, and Matchbox
cars in grade school, AMT Model Cars in Junior High School, real cars in high school, and hot rods ever after. Ahhhhhhhh. I am in hog heaven watching this show. Sayonara!
Notes: In at 78.1 and out at 74.3 Kgs.
The rest of the story on Post # 236!
New Picture of the '84 Coleman Columbia on Post # 235!
* Earth day online à http://earthday.envirolink.org/
** Car of the Future, retrieved online April 22 from NOVA’s website, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/
New Readers: For an INDEX, click January 2008 on the Sidebar and page down to post # 207.
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